The United States Attorney for the Northern District of California announced
today that Michael Anthony Bradley, 32, of Oak Park, California, was arrested
yesterday on a criminal complaint filed in San Jose charging him with
interfering with commerce by threats or violence in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1951, and mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1341.
Special Agents from the United States Secret Service arrested Mr. Bradley,
a self-described computer programmer, yesterday afternoon at the offices
of Google, Inc., in Mountain View, California. According to a Secret Service
Agent’s affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Mr. Bradley
had demanded $100,000 from Google to stop him from releasing a software
program he claimed would allow spammers to defraud Google of millions
of dollars. Special Agents simultaneously executed a search warrant of
Mr. Bradley’s residence, located in Oak Park in Southern California.
Mr. Bradley made his initial appearance on the charges this morning before
United States Chief Magistrate Judge Patricia V. Trumbull in San Jose
federal court. He was released on a $50,000 appearance bond, and on the
conditions that he refrain from using any computer or the Internet and
avoid all contact with Google and its employees. A preliminary hearing
in the matter has been set for April 8, 2004, at 9:30 a.m. before United
States Magistrate Judge Howard R. Lloyd.
According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed in San Jose today,
Mr. Bradley attempted to defraud and extort money from Google, the Internet
company best known for its free search engine, by developing a software
program that automates fraudulent “clicks” on “cost-per-click”
advertisements utilized by Google. These fraudulent clicks, in turn, were
designed to cause Google to make payments that were supposed to be made
only for “clicks” made by legitimate Web surfers.
The complaint alleges that Mr. Bradley first sent an email requesting
a meeting with Google concerning his software program, which he named
Google Clique, in early March. In a subsequent face-to-face meeting with
Google engineers on March 10, the complaint alleges that Mr. Bradley performed
a demonstration of his program, and claimed that it generated false clicks
that look like real Internet traffic and were untraceable. The defendant
allegedly stated that he would sell it to top spammers if Google did not
pay him $100,000, and that Google would lose millions.
The maximum statutory penalty for each violation of 18 U.S.C. §§
1341 and 1951 is 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However,
any sentence following conviction would be dictated by the Federal Sentencing
Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be
imposed in the discretion of the Court. A criminal complaint simply contains
allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Bradley
must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
The investigation was overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual
Property (CHIP) Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office. Christopher
P. Sonderby, Chief of the CHIP Unit, is the Assistant United States Attorney
who is prosecuting the case.
The prosecution is the result of an investigation by agents from the
San Francisco Electronic Crimes Task Force, which is managed by the United
States Secret Service. More information concerning the SFECTF can be found
at www.ectaskforce.org.

Google, Inc., has cooperated fully in this investigation.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s
website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed
to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher P. Sonderby at (408) 535-5037,
or Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Robbins at (415) 436-6815.